Identify and Describe Context Practice Test

In a 1936 radio address, the speaker talks to listeners still shaken by bank failures and widespread unemployment. The speaker argues that “fear of the poor” has led communities to treat relief recipients as suspects, forcing humiliating investigations and public shaming. While acknowledging the need to prevent fraud, the address contends that mass joblessness is a structural crisis rather than a personal moral failing. The speaker urges support for federal work programs and social insurance, insisting that democratic stability requires protecting citizens from destitution.

The author’s argument emerges in response to…

Read the following excerpt (embedded here) and answer the question.

In 1892, after a major factory fire kills dozens of garment workers, a reform-minded journalist writes in a widely circulated Sunday paper. The article describes locked exit doors, overcrowded floors, and the owners’ insistence that “accidents are the price of industry.” The journalist argues that the public’s appetite for cheap clothing has been subsidized by invisible risk, and calls for building codes and inspections. “We have treated the factory like a private kingdom,” the author claims, “and then acted surprised when its subjects burn.”

The passage is situated within a context of…